Euskal Oiloa Chicken Forum

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Another MG update ...

So my lab results for the Mycoplasma Gallisepticum blood tests came back for all my remaining hens. Every last one of them was positive! I was expecting it but I was soooo bummed out!! It has taken me until now to share this as I really did have to think about the next step. All along the plan was to cull anyone who tested positive but now it was staring me in the face. Debbie culled her whole flock in January so her coops could sit empty and her hubby could build her new outdoor covered runs. That way we could move the new youngsters over after blood testing them and also give me a chance to clean up my coops and also let them sit empty for awhile. So on Saturday I arranged to have a small crew of us do the deed ... On Friday night my dear sweet hubby sat me down and said that he would not be angry with me or judge me in any way if I decided to just keep the old girls and have a closed flock. Regardless of all this effort and cost ... wow I have a whole new respect for him. But I knew that I needed to follow through with the culling, even if the future flock ends up with MG I have always said to myself that I needed to do everything possible to have an MG free flock for my own reasons. Then and only then if I still ended up with an infected flock so be it!! Debbie and I have agreed on this point all along. It would have been easier if the hens were snotting and crusty eyed but they were not. I have been getting 19+ eggs from 20 girls daily for a number of weeks now. Some of those girls were my original EO hens from Claire and Susan, so 5ish years old. But we did it and they are pieced up, a couple of the younger girls I will slow roast. I also culled Weise my old white Silkie, although hubby has the culling with the killing cones job I chose to cull her myself after a long cuddle. Quick and hopefully relatively stress free for her, I dislocated her neck in a matter of seconds. She was incinerated.

So the second part of this story is the good news part. Along with the hens blood samples we decided to test Chin-warmer, he was the first chick hatched and at an age where I could get a decent sample. Also we were told by the lab to wait until he was at least 5-6 weeks old for immunity purposes. His blood test came back Negative ... yes negative!!. We are thrilled! So all the chicks, 62 of them I think, now live at Debbie's in their awesome new runs. They are quite happy and now I have a whole lot of coop cleaning and painting to do!! Wish us luck and we shall keep you posted on further blood tests and plans.

XOX Monika

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2015-05-18 18:17:19

Re: Another MG update ...

Monika, I can't believe what you have gone through. As my Gram used to say of someone she thought had true grit was "you are made of the good stuff"!! I would feel sick having to cull all my birds especially my oldies

As you said you have good news and hope for the future and that is WONDERFUL!!